Life’s Essentials – Isaiah 58:6-9

At death, as at no other time of our lives, we ask ourselves, “What is essential to life?  What is essential to a good life?  What is it that really matters in life?  In notes she put down about her memorial service, Babs included the quotation generally attributed to one of Bab’s favorite writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and found on the cover of your bulletin: “To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”  Inspiring words, to be sure.

            Although Babs used her email, I don’t think she was much of an internet surfer. Or else she would have “googled” her favorite quote and discovered what I did, that those widely quoted Emerson lines are not likely to have been from him at all, but are likely based on a poem written by Bessie Stanley in 1905!  Which only confirms the adage “behind every great man is a great woman.”

            The Emerson-Stanley quote, or a more contemporary statement, such as you find in Fulgham’s “Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten” are examples of folk wisdom kind of answers to “what is essential to life?”  And like many of us, being one of culture’s admirers, Babs VanVleck appreciated such sentiments.  But Babs was also a person of faith, and she looked to more profound writers for guidance about how we should live our lives.  Such as the prophet Isaiah.

            Isaiah addresses the people of his day who question, “What is essential about life?”  Apparently there were those then – as now – that believed what is essential about life is to make a public display of one’s religiosity.  To wear one’s faith on one’s sleeve, as they say.  To be fervent in one’s worship of God – for one hour, one day a week.

            Isaiah says God’s has something else in mind for his children.  “Is not this the fast I choose” he writes. That is to say, “Is this not the kind of faithfulness God chooses” – to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free.  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to house the homeless, and clothe the naked?

            What the prophet is declaring is, how we relate to others reveals how we relate to God.  Our relationships with our neighbors, and with those in need, demonstrate our relationship with God.  Bringing social justice on earth is what God is passionate about, and God is passionate about those of his children who share his passion.  And when the fruits of faith are justice and mercy and sharing, God hears and blesses those bearing those fruits.  As Isaiah writes, “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.”

            That is not to say, go do your good deeds so that God will bless you.  Not at all.  What Isaiah is saying – and what Jesus echoes in his own preaching – is that the life of faith is about being faithful.  A God-filled life is a life filled with what God is concerned about.  And what God is concerned about is that all of his children might live together in harmony with one another and in divine-human fellowship.

            And here’s the tie in with Emerson/Stanley:  the choices we make in life make a difference. And the choices we make in life have consequences.  A difference in the world and in our personal lives.  Consequences for our neighbors and consequences for us.

            Now, we know the choices our dear sister Babs made and tried to make in her life.  We are blessed by her witness and we give thanks for what we have shared with her.  What remains to be determined, is, what choices, by the grace of God, are we making and are prepared to make?

            One of the last books Babs was reading – I don’t think she finished it – is a collection of reflections and meditations by Jane Goodall, entitled Reason for Hope.  In her work on behalf of wildlife and the environment, Goodall has seen many reasons to give up hope, as species become endangered and humankind seemingly has become MORE violent as opposed to less so.  But in a chapter entitled “hope”, Goodall sees reason for hope.  She writes, “I truly believe that more and more people are seeing the appeal in the eyes around them, feeling it in their hearts, and throwing themselves into the battle.  Herein lies the real hope for our future; we are moving toward the ultimate destiny of our species – a state of compassion and love.”

            Goodall’s vision is that when we see other animals as creatures of worth and need – and see each other as creatures of worth and need -  than we human beings will fulfill our calling to faithfully and compassionately care for one another and for all of God’s creation.

            That is also the sentiment we find in the two hymns Babs chose for this service – the hymn Help us accept each other is a prayer for God’s grace to shatter the coldness of our hearts and to fill us with Godly passion and love.  And the hymn In Christ there is no East or West affirms the promise we have in Jesus Christ, that through Christ, the races can be joined and even the most profound of cultural differences can be overcome. 

            Friends:  Is this not our calling:  to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free?  It is not to share your bread with the hungry?  That is our calling. That is what is essential about life.

            Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.  AMEN.

R. Charles Grant

Bon Air Presbyterian Church

Richmond, VA

Babs VanVleck Memorial Service

September 9, 2006

Isaiah 58:6-9

     Is not this the fast that I choose:

       to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke,

     to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

⁷    Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house;

     when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

⁸    Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly;

     your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

⁹    Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;

       you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.